D Wilde Bode

D Woo Jett

Every year there's a mock draft done by the team boards of HF -- here are the results of 2015, 2016, and 2017. Rules are easy: just pick the player you want your team to draft based on who is still available; "trade the pick" is not an option

I can't see the poll results from that for some reason but maybe don't call out people for initially wanting Patrick at that time when you were pretty much divided as well, and if anything were "leaning towards" him.

I can't see the poll results from that for some reason but maybe don't call out people for initially wanting Patrick at that time when you were pretty much divided as well, and if anything were "leaning towards" him.

I think if you were to have taken a poll a day before the draft, you would have closer to a 50-50 split. Seems like Hischier slowly won people over as the draft got closer.

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I think a lot of fans had their opinions tainted by the fact that it became more and more clear that we were picking Nico. Just like how Flyers fans opinions changed from preferring Nico to omg I can’t believe they are passing on Patrick.

I don't understand the Sandin vote. If a Devils fan doesn't want the "risk" associated with Miller or Wilde (or Lundqvist) despite appreciably higher upside, why Sandin over a lower-risk D like McIsaac? Sandin's upside is a very solid all-around 2nd pairing D, which is nothing to scoff at. But so is McIsaac's -- and McIsaac is bigger, more NHL-ready and has a higher floor.

Maybe it will help if I rank the D available on this list in terms of various skills:
SKATING
1 Merkley
2 Wilde
3 Miller
4 Alexeyev
5 Lundqvist
6 McIsaac
7 Woo
8 Sandin
9 Samuelsson

Of course, these are my observations, and thus subjective. Of course, it is important to note that these are very different types of players. We can split them into groups of "low-risk, likely mid-pairing D" (McIsaac, Sandin, Woo, Samuelsson), "significant risk with significant reward D" (Merkley, Lundqvist) and the guys in between (Wilde, Miller, Alexeyev), whom I believe are all NHL locks, it's just a matter of the risk of downside (bottom four contributors) versus upside (top-pairing studs).

Denisenko is certainly a highly skilled player. He reminds me a bit of Panarin, maybe without the strong finishing skills and fearlessness in tight. Outstanding hands/puck-handling/vision. He is an exciting and dynamic player, super fun to watch. Although listed as a LW/C, I do not see much possibility of him playing up in the middle in the NHL. His caveat is that he avoids physicality and dirty areas and has a lot of work to do on his 200-foot game. If all of this reminds one of scouting reports on Jesper Boqvist from a year ago, that's because they are not dissimilar players. I would call Denisenko, at this stage, a "higher-end Boqvist".

I have strong confidence Denisenko will score many points for a happy NHL team, but I cannot see it being the Devils. As I've stated before, Taylor Hall is the #1 LW for the foreseeable future, and the Devils are loaded with players on their LW depth chart behind him: MoJo, Bratt, Wood, Coleman. Zacha and Quenneville can both play LW as well as C, while Boqvist will be making a push for the team in a season or two.

The only way I could see the Devils considering a LW in the first round is if Farabee somehow fell, or maybe Kotkaniemi (who probably will end up an NHL center). There would be no need to draft Denisenko, even if the Devils decided to go with a forward, because he is not superior to several RWs who should be available at #17, i.e. : Kravtsov, Thomas, Bokk.

I do not compare McAvoy to Wilde so much. I've said before that my closest comparisons are Wilde = less consistent Subban and Miller = a rawer Charlie McAvoy. Both of these US-NTDP kids have just insane upside. But in either case, they have a lot of work to do before they reach it, and there are no guarantees.

I don't understand the Sandin vote. If a Devils fan doesn't want the "risk" associated with Miller or Wilde (or Lundqvist) despite appreciably higher upside, why Sandin over a lower-risk D like McIsaac? Sandin's upside is a very solid all-around 2nd pairing D, which is nothing to scoff at. But so is McIsaac's -- and McIsaac is bigger, more NHL-ready and has a higher floor.

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Sandin gets the vote because he’s the most reliable combination in terms of defensive responsibility along with solid offensive skill. And he still has plenty of upside. He also has some of the best 5v5 numbers of any of the defenseman who will be available at 17. From Cordell: “Sandin was a more efficient 5v5 producer at the OHL level than the likes of Vince Dunn, Travis Dermott, Dougie Hamilton, Aaron Ekblad, Olli Maatta, Mikhail Sergachev and Jakob Chychrun in their draft years so clearly he is competent offensively.”